Tag Archives: JFK

New Tastes

Experience and creativity have created the following to learn from taste memories and make my own.

I’ve a beef carbonnade I make on the fly, that’s seared bacon, seared beef cubes, caramelized onions (once you take the beef out) then add some thyme, salt and pepper and 1.5 bottles of beer. Even though this is a French dish I get an English Brown Ale. So sue me. But not ’til after you simmer it on the stove for a minimum of 1.5 hours or place it in the oven at 325. Purchase or make your own egg noodles, I prefer pappardelle, and serve. I like something fresh and green on the side.

You can get my Chicken Saltimbocca recipe on this site.

Lady Bird Johnson was a lady and I hope to do justice to her chili recipe from 1962 when the Vice President and Lady Bird served Texas chili to 5,000 guests including President JFK. The recipe was the most sought White House document for a year.

I had to re-do this recipe as it is comfort food and the recipe is vague so I have to add my own meats and spices and grind the meat Texas-style. Yes, I choose my own cuts and break them down and grind them myself. Perhaps I’ll have to write a book about it and then give you a recipe. There is no recipe. If you look at the original, available to download at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin TX you’ll see it calls for “chili meat” and “chili powder.” I’ve my own mix and serve it with lime, sour cream, cheddar cheese for individual tastes add homemade cornbread and a salad. While I never had this as comfort food as a child, I did live in Texas for years and created my own.

There’s a Swedish neighbor who wants to teach me how to make meatballs and his special sauce which my husband and I were lucky to eat at his place next door. Since we’ve had dinner here and there, he will teach me meatballs and I will teach him Texas chili. We’ve an agreement. No, there are no beans in Texas chili. Don’t bother to argue.

As part of my family came from Montreal I would like to try to make poutine, which I never wanted to taste but is french fries with beef gravy and cheese curds. One of my first AHA moments was eating a smoked meat sandwich on rye at Ben’s in Montreal. Thank you David Sax for Save the Deli, sorry you took me off your blogroll. I bought another copy after a waiter stole the first copy from me as they grossly insulted pastrami and bread with what they served.

Perhaps the local holier than thou market will agree to make a poutine. They have potatoes, beef and cheese curds. What better marketing ploy can I grant? Dee

 

 

 

Snow and Turkeys

It is September 18, a Wednesday. My husband called from work at 9:45 this morning to schedule something. I had the dishwasher and washing machine running at the same time so ran for my desk for some peace and quiet next to the window on a high floor, well for here, anyway.

Sometimes nature has to give a person a wake-up call. It was pouring down rain and all of a sudden for about 15 seconds there were tiny snowflakes floating by and two big birds, and one little one across our major street.

They were trying to cross the road. There are wild turkeys out here in the near-town suburbs! After six months of my hard work and a couple of nasty (human) fatalities in the neighborhood, the city finally started curb cuts and crosswalks. Now for the past few weeks we’ve had one but now cars speed up with me and our little hipless dog out there, don’t slow or stop.

The three made it across the road and all of a sudden a fourth, another little one, must have yelled “Mom! Dad! Don’t leave me!” and he/she parted traffic as if were the Red Sea and made it back to the family.

What nature reminds me of is that this weekend we need to get flights to Nanny’s for Thanksgiving. The dog will be taken care of. Just think of snow and turkeys and Thanksgiving. Do not fret, the wild turkeys here are safe, from us anyway.

Last year we drove for three days to get to Thanksgiving, with said dog. We call it the dog-cation because my husband insisted on staying inside major cities en route and I’d rather stay in a 2.5 star off the highway where I can actually take her for walks and it’s cool enough to park the car right outside the windows of a burger place so we can keep an eye on her. Now hotels make dog owners sign complicated papers that prohibit ever leaving your dog in the room. Not that we would as she’d rather be in the car or with her pack.

It was a good visit (we left her with my in-laws shortly after arriving and went out for pizza, alone). The road to and from was not easy and so we’ll leave her with someone she loves and fly this time. Depending upon flights, that will leave me plenty of time to cook up some great dishes with my mother-in-law, which we only get to do once a year now.

Said m-i-l was disappointed that our dog would not be there this year because she’s great at picking up the occasional crumb from the kitchen floor! Cheers and make your arrangements soon to see family for the holidays. Dee

ps My dishes this year are expected to include: boursin and crackers; spinach balls if B isn’t making them from the recipe I gave her when she married into the family; mincemeat tarts, a staple in my family; [Oh, heavens, it’s snowing again!] brussels sprout and cauliflower gratin (a big hit last year); and perhaps a corn pudding that has done well with folks around here but hasn’t made it yet south of the Red River.

pps After Thanksgiving it may be time to cook up a big batch of chili with some homemade cornbread. Where better to grind and cook beef than a cattle ranch! Oh, as an honorary Texan I’ll tell you that LBJ and Lady Bird served a version of this chili to JFK and 5,000 guests at their ranch outside Austin in summer 1962. Of COURSE there are no beans in my chili. I know I’d be drummed out of the family if I went and did that!

New Chili!

No, I did not grind my own meat this time. Our butcher had a sale on grass fed, pasture raised beef and it was only on my walk home that I knew I had to make chili. I had to stop at another store to get canned whole tomatoes to make this work.

Yes, my ambition is to get close to the Pedernales River Chili that Lady Bird Johnson and LBJ served JFK and 5,000 guests at their ranch outside Austin TX on the Pedernales River in the summer of 1962.

But all the First Lady calls for is beef, onions and chili powder et al. I’m doing my version of it with nearly five pounds of beef. four onions, at least ten cloves of garlic all done first before the beef. Then I mash canned tomatoes and add seasoning.

I usually make this on a weekday but today my husband was home and the initial smell of the beef and cooking it reminded him of his brother bringing home a deer on a particularly warm Thanksgiving and the family (not us) “processed it” in the kitchen for six hours. Yes, I had a tough time that day and spent much of it outdoors.

Now I’ve put the chili up for the night to meld flavors and everything smells of cumin, onion, garlic and hot chile powders. That’s the way it goes. Now we have to give everyone a taste, including staff and my butchers. I’ll re-heat it tomorrow for dinner, correct the seasonings and add a few sprinkles of cheese on top, a dollop of sour cream and a squeeze of lime juice.

btw, There are no BEANS in a Texas chili. Even the kids there have guns and I’d be shot on site if they saw a bean in my chili. They haven’t tasted it yet. It’s too much to add to the five dishes I’m already bringing, even though we’re flying in for Thanksgiving and nothing is required. I just have fun with my m-i-l as we fly around her kitchen banging out dishes together.

Here’s to the lady who beautified our world by banning billboards and planting Texas Bluebonnets in fields. To walk in one of those fields with my pup who is now nearly ten years old is a joy I’ll always remember.

That Austin named Town Lake “Lady Bird Lake” is a well-deserved tribute. I will continue to perfect her chili and while she, LBJ and JFK will not be attending, I’ll do my best to keep our guests happy. Cheers! Dee

Healthcare Point and Shoot

My husband and I are tied up back to back in a darkened room on what a layman would call a Lazy Susan, add blindfolds. Spin us around and where we land are our healthcare decisions.

I know larger companies are trying to do the best for themselves and their employees, but things have gotten out of hand. Will no pre-existing conditions in 2014 actually help people get insurance?

As always the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Insurance companies don’t sell insurance, they take peoples’ money and invest it to make themselves money then deny claims by people who gave them that money in the first place.

Sometimes I want to live in a small farm town where I could run the local B&B and just pay the local doc if I get bronchitis. Now I know my relatives all live in these small towns and are helicoptered out if there’s a major problem.

Where do they take them? The place I will not go this year or ever. Near where JFK died nearly 50 years ago. We hope to see other historic sites on our trip for Thanksgiving but not the Texas Book Depository.

Are you an “acceptable risk” whether it comes to health insurance or property/casualty (auto and home) insurance?

My guess is you don’t want to figure out the health insurance until next year, as there’s no way with juvenile onset diabetes you can be covered. Cynically, Dee

The Kennedys

To Caroline, you’re a year older than I am, and my parents probably came home quickly from the appliance shop where they were looking for a washer and dryer, when your father was killed. I didn’t remember the details but we watched the funeral. I had a book, called Four Days, afterwards and relived it but certainly not as you did.

Over Thanksgiving we spent time with many family members north of Dallas. We had lunch downtown and went by the 6th Floor Museum, did not go in, but there were many people in line.

One young man ran into the highway and splashed champagne on the X where your father was killed. I was horrified by his behavior. These displays are only going to intensify as we near the 50th annivery of JFK’s death.

Yes, there is interest in his and your lives. Look at who followed. OK, we only had the worst of Vietnam, Watergate, Noriega and “that woman.”

I am sorry you’ve been plagued by the press all your life. You seem to have dealt with it very well and they leave you alone, and for that I am grateful, as your family has done enough for our country.

Sometimes I wonder if you think about being just a regular person, like most people may wish to pretend how they’d be if they were famous.

No, we’ve nothing in common except age and gender. Except I’ve cared for your family since I knew you existed. I wish you and your family well. Cheers, Dee

Mr. Hill’s Four Days

Mr. Clint Hill had an editorial in the NYTimes today about November 22, 1963 and his part in trying to keep the First Lady and President safe. These memories have haunted him for nearly fifty years, but in a much closer and sadder way than it has affected most Americans.

Four Days is a book my parents bought me because I obsessed, at age five, over the death of our President. The first time my mother turned on the television during the day was for us to watch the funeral. It was something we of a certain age grew up with and still remember, but not like Mr. Hill. He was there, and simply by saying there was more than one shot there goes the Warren Commission report.

Now we’re in a recession, wars, joblessness, and I fear little hope of recovery given the current system. It was never really “Camelot” under JFK’s 1,000 day reign but even with the Cuban Missile crisis after he was gone, it seemed like it. Now we look back and miss Jackie, Jack, Bobby and now Teddy. Even though they weren’t championed like the boys, the Kennedy gals made a difference in this world.

Mr. Hill’s task that fateful day and every day was to protect Jackie Kennedy. He did that, and went on to protect others. He would have given his life that day and must be remembered for his service to our nation. Thank you, Mr. Hill. Respectfully, Dee